Wk6 Replies 1.Enjoy Viral ad fails Comment on above site 2. Product placement Spoofed brilliantly in Return of the Killer Tomatoes And yes that is a famous star very young Comment on above site 3.Matthew Q1 Self-service: Self service retailers serve customers who are willing to execute their own locate-compare-select process to save time or money. This service is typically used by retailers selling convenience goods and fast-moving shopping goods. Limited Service: Limited-service retailers provide more sales assistance because they carry more shopping goods about which customers need information. Full Service: Full service retailers assist customers in every phase of the shopping process. These stores typically carry more specialty goods for which customers need or want assistance or advice. The higher operating costs are passed to customers as higher prices. Service level choices have a direct effect on retailers. Self-service stores like Wal-mart can have cheaper priced items, more of a selection, larger stores and many locations because customer's can self serve when shopping. You don't need to house several employees in the beauty products section, because most of the products are self explanatory and recognizable. Stores like Tiffany's cost a lot more to run because employees require a higher level of training on the product, the product is more expensive and the cost of producing the products are higher. I would say no to making an independent choice over the others. All three levels cover any service needs the customer may need. That entails discount operations all the way to high end specialty stores. Reply to Thread 4. Matthew Q2 Five major promotion tools are: Advertising- Advertising can reach many people throughout the world through television, social media, billboards, newspapers and radio. Advances in technology have caused companies to figure out where their advertisement money should be spent. The average person spends several hours a day watching t.v or online. Having to find the correct social platform or medium advertisement is being distributed can cost companies a lot of money. Sales Promotion- Sales promotions attract customers by offering incentives to purchase. This can come in the form of coupons and discounts. Companies have to be crafty finding new ways to offer customers promotions with today's technology. Email is a popular form of promotions. You can also find promotional info on twitter or other social media websites. Personal Selling- Personal selling involves personal interaction between two or more people, so each person can observe the other's needs and characteristics. Personal selling has never become more easy, because sellers can reach customers all over the world through Face time, Skype or other forms of video chat. On the other hand more and more people aren't interested in engaging one on one when texting or calling is so popular. Public Relations- Public relations involves believable news stories, sponsorships, and events that seem more real to readers than ads do. This form of promoting has gained leverage due to today's technology. Like other forms of promotion, you can have a PR presence on almost any platform these days. The newspaper, magazines, social media, television and etc. benefit PR. Direct and Digital Marketing- Direct marketing is usually directed to a specific customer or community. It's personalized and the messages are prepared quickly in real-time. This form of promotion creates dialogue between the marketing team and consumer, allowing the messages to be altered depending on the customer's response. Digital marketing has exploded because of new technology. Company's can stay in contact with each other through online chat such as Microsoft Teams or Skype. Video chat is accessible to almost everyone with a smartphone and text messaging has never been more popular. Digital marketing is probably one of the most important promotional tools for companies. Reply to thread Part two replies 1. Samuel Q1 The three different levels of service include product assortment, services mix and store atmosphere (Armstrong, 2020). The goal of a product assortment should help the company stand apart from other competitors but also offer products that are focused on the markets. This involves selling the products with a competitive price, and offering a large assortment of products within the product line to help compete against other competitors in the market. Services mix involves how the company provides services to their customers whether it is through customer service in store, on the phone or online or how-to classes to get customers involved. Lastly, store atmosphere involves how the company's atmosphere aides in the selling or providing of services. This involves the location of the store as well as the size of the store that the customers are visiting for the product or service. A location that is accessible to the public is welcoming and can help bring in foot traffic, while a spacious store that doesn't make customers feel crowded or lost helps provide a comfortable atmosphere. Comment 2. Abel Q1 1. Describe the three different levels of service that a retailer could offer. How does the choice of a service level affect the other choices that a retailer makes, such as price, product line selection, size of store, and location? Retail stores can offer many different types of service. The three levels of service are: selfservice, limited service and full service. 1. Self-Service is offered by a retailer who serves customers who are willing to locate and compare the product that they want to save money or time. An example of this type of store would be Hy-Vee or Target where the consumers do the shopping without assistance. Here the retailer can price the product competitively to sell and don’t have to increase its costs to account for a salesperson’s salary. Target is starting to place smaller in stores in urban walking-areas to appeal to people who want to grab-and-go so the location choices are wider. 2. Limited Service is offered by a retailer who provides more sales assistance than self-service because the retailer carries shopping goods which the customer may need help with understanding or require more information to make a final decision. An example of such a retailer would be Best Buy or Scheels who have people on hand to help shoppers make final informed decisions. This choice of service affects how the retailer makes other decisions such as price because the increased cost of providing the service will ultimately increase the cost of the product. Also, the store will have to have a large location to accommodate multiple sales people, customers and products. 3. Full-Service is offered by retailers who assist customers in nearly every phase of the shopping experience. An example of such a retailer would be Nordstrom or Von Maur where the sales associates are there to help consumers from start to finish. The choice of service affects how the retailer will price the product because they will have offset the cost of providing the service so the product price will increase. Also, they will again need a larger space to accommodate all the people and products. And, the location should be in a place where lots of people live so urban would work better than rural. Can you make a service level choice independently of the other choices? Explain. I don’t think you can make a service level choice independently of the other choices like location and price because all of these choices involve costs which need to be balanced against sales. So the costs have to justify the sales choices. Consequently, retailers need to consider all of these factors when deciding how they are going to run their operation. For instance, a superstore which allows for self-service shopping needs to take into consideration the size of the operation they will need to create in order to be successful. Then they need to consider that the size of the operation will determine where the facility can be located to make it successful. Then they will need to decide if they can get enough people in the store who are willing to assist themselves based on that location to determine what prices products should be assessed at in order to make a profit. All the factors are codependent and should be assessed together to determine the right choice. Comment 3.Samuel Q2 The five major promotion tools are advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and direct and social media marketing (Armstrong, 2020). Advertising includes the ads that we often see on the television or in newspapers. Personal selling involves the use of employees such as greeting people at the door or building relationships. Sales promotion may include loyalty programs or in store displays. Public relations involves things like grand openings or participating in community events. Direct and social media marketing is becoming more important in promotion of companies and products. Many company's now have websites, Facebook pages, or other uses of social media that is helping attract more customers than before. Changes in technology has forced companies to adapt to their surroundings and hire professionals to help create a social media presence. Additionally, it is becoming evident that having a strong media presence is essential for attracting the younger generations. Comment 4. Abel Q2 Name and describe the five major promotion tools used in marketing. Discuss how advances in technology have forced companies to change their approach in using each of the major tools. The five major promotion tools used in marketing are: 1. Sales Promotion which are the short-term incentives used to encourage the purchase or sale of a service or product. Due to new technology companies are now super competitive in sales promotions and the way they approach customers is different. It used to be that companies would reach customer’s through mailers or newspaper notifications of sales. However, due to the reliance on technology companies now notify customers of sales through emails and social media outlets. 2. Advertising which is any paid form of nonpersonal exhibition and promotional ideas, services or goods by an acknowledged sponsor. Again, companies have had to change their approach to advertising due to new technology. Now, companies run advertisements on YouTube channels and in podcasts to reach consumers. 3. Direct and Digital Marketing is when companies engage directly with a carefully identified and targeted consumer base as well as customer communities to obtain an immediate response and build lasting consumer relationships. Companies have changed their approach to this tool due to new technology because they have much more information about their consumers and so can target customers. For instance, in that article we read about Target notifying the father that his daughter was pregnant due to direct advertising. 4. Personal Selling which are personal customer interactions by the firm’s sales force in order to engage customers, make sales, as well as build customer relationships. Changes in technology have altered the way that companies personally sell to consumers because they have to get more creative. People are shopping online more and more these days so companies have had to change their marketing strategies to get people in the store or to create customer interactions with the companies’ sales force. 5. Public Relations or PR which is building positive relationships with the business’ numerous publics by identifying favorable publicity, handling or stopping unfavorable rumors, stories and events, as well as building up a good corporate image. New technology has changed how companies engage in PR. While some still invest heavily in social media mass-communication strategies the costs of those campaigns are rising so companies are starting to put their money in online PR concepts.
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